>shelter isn't just a cherry picked item. It's by an far the largest spending category, that and healthcare.
The BLS agrees. That's why "shelter" is weighted 35.6% in the CPI basket, by far the biggest item.
> I couldn't care less about all the other categories, personally.
If we're going by what people "care" about (whatever that means), the basket would probably be like 70% gas prices, 20% grocery prices, and 10% for everything else. Empirically speaking, those two are far more salient politically than housing.
yeah, staggering. it's utterly amazing how much people care about gas prices. i can't wrap my mind around it. I mean, would people really rather be out on the street rather than get an EV or god forbid a hybrid?